Serenades

Commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association and co-commissioned by Radio France and Norddeutscher Rundfunk, this work was composed in 2020. It was first performed the following year at Symphony Center, Chicago, by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Hannu Lintu. The Chicago Classical Review commented, “There is a lurking elemental power in this turbulent work, echoing Lindberg’s compatriot Jean Sibelius, but transmuted through a 21st-century lens. Cast in a single movement of 15 minutes, the music also fitfully evokes the middle movements of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony in its sense of nocturnal unease.” The Times added, "With a shimmer of strings, ominous brass and the moth-wing flurries of woodwinds, Serenades drew us into the depths of the night ... the chameleon Finnish composer has written a visceral, turbulent nightscape."